Teaching practice in initial teacher education

The so-called "internship and residency" in initial teacher training is a period of deepening and integration of the entire training pathway of the aspiring teacher. Internships are the central pedagogical axis of initial teacher training. The trainee's status as a trainee does not imply abandoning his or her status as a student; however, the student teacher, as a trainee, is not just another student. The trainee assumes responsibility for a set of actions, which are no longer those of a student, but are the actions of the teacher. Internships, as a formative instance, place the practitioner in that interstice between being a student and being a teacher.